The snake-like queue lengthened as I circled the Cape Town Civic Centre like an impatient hyena. The traffic officer shrugged when I asked him where I might find parking. “Dunno, not there though… not safe”, gesturing up the road passed the entrance.
I was there for my vehicle registration as the renewal deadline loomed. The security/ushers at the entrance warned us that we may not make it inside today as it depended on whether the system was working or not. After 90 minutes of waiting in the cold, I called it quits. “Try to come back at 7:30 am on Saturday”, a wheel-chair bound car guard helpfully suggested.
As I drove home, I thought about the problem. Clearly, an online service could benefit all. I was aware of how diverse and culturally different the group of people in the queue were. English wasn’t the first language for many. I recalled the pensioners who had been ushered to the front and it concerned me that they were there during the Covid-19 pandemic. I considered how expensive late penalties would be for business owners renewing several licenses at a time.
The population of South Africa is one of the most diverse in the world. We have 11 official languages. We are also known as one of the most unequal countries.
This is why we should be considering accessibility and inclusivity in our designs. Accessibility is the practice of making websites usable by as many people as possible. It’s not only about including people with disabilities, but the practice of making sites accessible to those using mobile devices, or those with slow network connections. Accessibility can also benefit people with temporary disabilities. These may include someone carrying shopping bags while navigating an app or someone struggling to read a website on their phone in bright sunlight. Captions on audio content benefit people in noisy environments or those unable to turn their sound on. So many people think that accessibility on the web doesn't affect them, but remember when you get to 70ish years, it will be a problem for you too.
What’s the difference between Accessibility and Inclusive Design?
Accessibility focuses on the end result or an outcome of a design. Inclusive design is closely related to accessibility, but rather than an outcome, it’s a methodology for how to approach design. It’s a process for creating a design that can be used by a diverse group of people. Accessibility on its own, though, will leave out large sections of the population who don’t have a defined, legally recognised disability but may have issues interacting with interfaces based on particular circumstances in their environment. Inclusive design actively seeks out those diverse situations, which include disabilities, and aims to address them.
How to design for inclusion and accessibility
For your user research, speak to people from diverse backgrounds and a wide range of perspectives. Avoid the idea of having a ‘typical’ customer and instead look at people as unique individuals who have differing abilities at different times in their lives, based on their particular environment. Speak to customers with disabilities and listen to their processes and challenges that they encounter. Get an empathetic understanding of how they experience a website or product.
Follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) guidelines. Starting with the basics can make a huge impact on making your website more friendly to users with a variety of impairments.
Design for uncommon uses first. For example, make sure that the hierarchy is completely clear for a screen reader first. And then start adding the visual hierarchy. Is that date picker you’re using compatible with screen readers? Define your design constraints early on.
Be considerate with colour. Did you know that colour blindness affects 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women in the world? Use a good contrast ratio and avoid relying on colour for meaning. Check for accessibility plugins for the design software you use. I recently discovered this accessibility plugin for Figma.
Test early and often. Evaluate websites for accessibility errors. A nice idea is to publish an accessibility statement on your site and engage with people having problems.
Inclusive design is a win-win for South African customers and businesses. It allows your digital products to be enjoyed by a much larger audience. It improves SEO, ignites innovation, and helps your company take on a position of social responsibility. Instead of saying “Accessibility is the right thing to do”, perhaps we should be saying, “It’s the more effective thing to do.”
As UX designers and developers, we’re in a position to make the websites and products we work on more accessible. Let’s take action and become advocates for accessibility and inclusivity in the organisations/companies that we work at.
Here’s a list of reading material and resources:
Further discussion here on the Guidelines podcast
Best Practices for Inclusive Design - Apple Developer
Inclusive Design Toolkit by Microsoft
Accessibility - Google Material Design
Designing Inclusively by Adam Silver
Introduction to accessibility – Free EDX course
Mismatch - How Inclusion Shapes Design by Kat Holmes
Accessibility and Touch Targets - Zac Dickerson
Do’s and don’ts on designing for accessibility
Accessible Design vs Inclusive Design by Cameron Chapman
Design for slow, intermittent, and offline connectivity by Ramprakash Ravichandran
A UX Copywriter's Guide to Accessibility by Robert Peiffle
A growing list of accessibility tools and resources
Tactile paving, design, accessibility and those bumpy bits that you stand on when you're crossing a British street.